East Carolina vs Central Florida 1/18/22 College Basketball Picks, Predictions, Odds

The UCF Knights and the East Carolina Pirates meet in college basketball action from Minges Coliseum on Tuesday night.

The UCF Knights will look to bounce back from their 75-51 loss to USF last time out. Darin Green Jr. leads the Knights in scoring with 14.1 PPG while Darius Perry has 11.3 PPG with 3.5 RPG and a team-high 4.6 APG to lead the Knights in assists and to make up the other half of the pair of double-digit scorers for UCF so far this season. Brandon Mahan has 9.7 PPG and C.J. Walker has 8.7 PPG with a team-high 6.1 RPG to lead UCF on the boards while Cheikh Mbacke Diong also has 5.8 RPG this season. As a team, UCF is averaging 71.2 PPG on 44.6% shooting from the field, 34.2% from three and 76.7% from the foul line while allowing 65.6 PPG on 41.2% shooting from the field and 29.5% from three this season.

The East Carolina Pirates will try to build on their 72-71 win over Memphis in their last game. Tristen Newton leads the Pirates in scoring with 17.3 PPG as well as in assists with 5.2 APG while Vance Jackson has 12.8 PPG and Brandon Suggs has 10.3 PPG to cap off the trio of double-digit scorers for ECU so far this season. Brandon Johnson is also the Pirates’ top rebounder, grabbing 6.8 RPG for the Pirates up to this point in the year. As a team, East Carolina is averaging 73.6 PPG on 43.6% shooting from the field, 37.5% from three-point range and 75% from the foul line while allowing 70.6 PPG on 43.1% shooting from the field and 33.8% from three point range so far this season.

UCF is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a loss by 20 or more points and 8-2 ATS in their last 10 games following an ATS loss while the under is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. East Carolina is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall and 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games following a win.

I get why UCF would be favored here, but the Pirates have been on fire as of late, especially at home in conference play. UCF game out flat against USF and they’ve had issues on the road in conference play so far since the Christmas break. I think this could end up being a two-point game so give me ECU and the points in a game the Pirates could end up winning outright.